Hola darlings! I'm sure I've mentioned this before. I'm a creature of the light. The darkness wears me down. I don't like forcing myself out of bed at 6 a.m. when it's still dark outside, and I don't like coming home from the office at 6 p.m. when it's dark outside. Yech! But - this morning - the Christmas Spirit hit me. Well, that's not to say I haven't been in a festive mood, because I like Christmas - when it's here I know the days are already starting to get longer by a few minutes each day and except for brutal temperatures in January and February and the occasional blizzard or ice storm in March and April (and even May), the worst is over! I know that in a scant six months it will still be lingering daylight at 9:30 p.m. Ahhhhhhh, those long warm evenings spent out on the deck, sipping wine, listening to smooth jazz, communing with the stars and my resident critters. That's the life, darlings!
As is my wont even on the weekends, I arose at 6 a.m. this morning. I was sitting at the dinette table, just two paltry mini fluorescent light bulbs in my five-light chandelier holding off the chill darkness as it snowed outside, brrrrr. As I do every Sunday morning, I had my coffee at hand and the big thick newspaper to keep me company. I generally spend a good 3 to 4 hours reading through the entire Sunday newspaper, including most of the sale papers, marvelling at how many things I would like to buy if only I could afford them! I had my favorite smooth jazz radio station (FM) on the radio and was munching on some salt-crusted rye bread and butter when one of my favorite songs came on: Nat King Cole's "Christmas Song." You know the song - even if you don't know the title. It's the one that starts out "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire, Jack Frost nipping at your nose..."
That did it - it was the perfect time, the perfect song. I was enveloped in Nat's marvelous voice and swept back to my childhood when Nat King Cole actually had a television show. His talent and charisma were such that even broadcast television recognized it, and so there was this black man on the t.v. - in black and white (ironic???) in the late 1950's, and I just loved the man. When he sang, I was transported to another world. Indeed, he was a favorite of the entire family. Unfortunately, the show was never a commercial success; sponsors were scared to death of being boycotted by the southern white racists back then, and so the show disappeared after about a year. Of course, back then, as a five year old, I had no idea what was going on; I just knew I loved the man with the wonderful voice, and to this day I will stop and listen, no matter where I am, when I hear Nat King Cole's voice.
"The Christmas Song" represents the essence of Christmas to me (I'm about to commit blasphemy here - even more so than Bing Crosby's "White Christmas"), and even after all these years, the song never fails to touch me. And so it did, again, this morning.
Today was the big day to decorate the Christmas tree, as the Packers were going to be on t.v. I could watch The Pack whup major butt while I spent a leisurely 3 hours decorating the tree. Yesterday, I'd successfully managed to retrieve it from the garage (although not without some mishap). For a rather smallish tree (it's only 6.5 feet tall and not very wide), it's amazingly heavy. It's also in three sections that somehow manage to come apart whenever I'm attempting to lift the tree or drag it somewhere...
Anyway, darlings, I gave up decorating the tree for the day at about 6:00 p.m. Whew! Been at it since 10:30 a.m. and somehow I have lots of ornaments left over that were ALL on the tree last year. Eek! What did I do wrong, I ask you? And - ohmygoddess - I asked dondelion to bring me a minimum of 10 quite beautiful burgundy and gold bead sunburst ornaments when he comes for Christmas. I found them online while shopping yesterday but it seems the only place that sells them is a tire place in Canada (I'm not kidding, it's a tire place) and you must go to one of their stores in person in order to purchase the ornaments - can you imagine?
I'm scratching my head wondering where on earth I managed to put on to the tree all the left-overs I have this year. I'll take it up tomorrow night when I get home from the office. And of course the burgundy Canadian starbursts will have places on the tree found for them, too!
The photograph is from Christmas, 2006. I don't think it quite does the tree justice - but you get the general idea. I like lots of glitz and glamour - pearls and gold and the sparkle of "diamonds".
Hola!
Oh the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful...
My Goddess, the wind is actually ROARING around the house. Many trees around the city have come crashing down, done in by ice loads and the strong winds. I have kept an anxious eye on my many trees. Best investment I ever made (besides this house) - the fireplace! I will be curled up before it later this evening, reading, as the wind chill drops into the danger zone (20 below zero and lower). With the advent of digital tvs the mantle is a convenient resting place for a 19" model. It still amazes me how light that tv is, and how slender!
Since this is probably the last Christmas I will spend in this home I had built just for me and have lived in for the last 19 years, I have been snapping photos here and there. My digital camera - what a wonderful invention! Photo 1: This is a view from the upstairs overlook of the living room showing boxes of ornaments scattered all over the place as I continued the long process of decorating my tree. The love seat normally sits in front of the window opposite the sofa on the other side of the coffee table. It it pushed into this position to make way for the tree, and focuses on the fireplace. It is now pushed back closer to the tree with the decorating is finished. Mr. Don and I have spent many a pleasant hour during his Christmas visits sipping Bailey's Irish Cream and Christian Brothers Egg Nog while snuggling on that love seat in front of the blazing fireplace.
Photo 2: Here is the partially dressed tree that I photographed either Saturday or Sunday. Both days were bright and sunny so there was a lot of light pouring into the house. I started the process on Friday evening, December 4th, by lugging the tree (it's heavy!) out of the garage and situating it just so in the front window. Thanks to some wise advice from a friend last year to tie the tree up before moving it (duh! it had not occurred to me to do so), this year the tree did not fall apart (it is in three hinged sections that are not screwed together) as I woman-handled it into the house! I spent a long time putzing with shaping the branches and vacuumed the tree (to get rid of any resident spiders), and started decorating the interior with ornaments to fill in blank spots that always show up when the light of day blazes through the window.
After I got home from looking at houses with my real estate broker and writing up an offer to purchase a house, I spent several hours Saturday afternoon on December 5th putting on the gold beading. I was intent on making it "JUST SO," and added more ornaments, and finished decorating the tree on Sunday, December 6th.
Photo 3: Here is a photo I took today of the completed tree. Following are two more photos of the completed tree. It was not sunny outside today with the storm in progress, so the front-on shot didn't turn out too well.
The tree is "pre-lit," only meaning that white lights were already wrapped around the branches when I purchased it. That saves a lot of time putzing around putting lights on the tree! But try to find a tree these days that doesn't come already "pre-lit." Ha! Impossible.
As you can see from the photos, the rest of my Christmas decorating is minimal - a few candles, a one-armed toy soldier given a spot of honor in front of the tv on the mantle -- Mr. Don rescued him from a Montreal street in 2007 and brought him to me for adoption during Christmas that year. You can see him in the first three photos.
I also put out the Christmas cards I receive, which reminds me, I must pick up a box and get mine mailed out too! In this photo you can make out the line of a string of white lights I have up around the round-top window. I have kept them up all year round since I first put them up - I forget what year that was. On July 4th I light up the window for Independence Day! Since they are around the outside of the window frame rather than the inside of the frame, they aren't really noticeable from the outside, but they sure do light up the great room when I have them on.
One of the first things I will do in whatever house I relocate to will be to put up a long string of white lights around the front room window. The house I put in the offer on has a very large rectangular window in the living room/great room that is perfect for such a display. It will be a fitting introduction of my style into my new neighborhood, which is filled with quietly sedate houses and landscaping. I intend to shake things up a bit :) I am plotting plans...
Now, I am going to relax and come up with a decorating scheme for my friend Ann's bathroom - she has decided to pull the trigger financially and have hers redone -- removing tile that a previous owner had painted over (how COULD they have done such a horrid thing, no matter how pink the tile was). We are going shopping tomorrow night for new tile and vinyl flooring! And I think a few rounds of drinks at Kegel's will be in order too, just to warm us up. Maybe before and after shopping.
